beautiful weekend

This has been a great weekend…. the weather has been perfect.  Probably one of the last weekends that was a high of 80 and beautifully sunny.  It was perfect for the tree climbing contest.  My dad was a judge and score keeper that kept him there most of day.  While he was watching guys climb trees Mom, Chris, I went downtown to the Peoria Art Fair. 
Last year Chris and I went and I was a little disappointed.  This year I was much more impressed.  There were lots of artists I recognized, as well as lots of new ones.  There were several pieces I really liked…Michael Romanik was selling enameled pieces and had a necklace there that was really wonderful.  Michael Brown did something I’d never seen before he some took two pictures of the same or very similar things.  Such as a tree in summer and the same tree in winter and made it into one of the images where it changes as you move.  So from one angle you see the tree w/ leaves and the other angle you see it in winter.  It was really cool!  He had lots of different images too…such as Chicago skylines and then the sky line w/ the buildings saying Go Sox in the windows!  There were a few other photographers I really enjoyed as well. 
There was a much wider selection of art this year.  And for the first time I saw several bead artists there.  One lady, Sharon Donovan, I recognized her work from 500 beaded objects.  Her booth was very busy when I was there, and she was making sales so I didn’t get a chance to talk with her.  But I thought it was pretty exciting to see someone’s work I recognized here in Peoria.  I also recognized some beads by a lampwork artist there named Mary Smith.  I think I must have seen her work at the Bead and Button show.  Her booth was also busy when I was there.  It was good to see the artists busy and actually selling especially with all the talk in the news of the economy.  I’m glad people were out buying. 
I know Chris and I were both in the mood to buy something.  And I saw a lot of wonderful art and lots of things I really liked.  But nothing was just perfect or something we couldn’t live without.  If we had decided to head back today we probably would buy something…either the enamel pendant for me or one of the fractal images that Janet Parke created.  These were really wonderful especially her tree images.
One thing I do want to say to all artists whether they are just beginning or doing large shows.  You should really have some sort of website or contact on the Internet.  I know I’m not the only one who goes home and googles the names of artists that they enjoyed looking at or are interesting in seeing more of their work.  Half the artists at this show don’t have a web presence!  Even a blogger account is nice to see.  It’s a way to contact the artist to see where they’ll be showing again, or even to buy directly.

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